Budget woes don't hold CSUSM back, Haynes says

SAN MARCOS  Cal State San Marcos has taken a “strikingly modern approach to education” to survive and thrive amid the recession and repeated budget cuts.

That was the message university President Karen Haynes delivered Thursday morning to more than 500 business, government and community leaders in her ninth annual “Report to the Community,” whose chief sponsor was U-T San Diego.

Haynes’ address kicked off with stark numbers illustrating the discrepancy in state spending between prisons and higher education, but quickly turned to the positive.

She said that while other universities are simply “hanging on and trying to survive” in response to insufficient funding, Cal State San Marcos has chosen to be “more agile, less bureaucratic, and infinitely more inventive.”

Haynes added that the university’s work is

essential for the region’s “economic vitality and intellectual vibrancy.”

Innovation was a significant theme for the president, and she highlighted community and business partnerships that have allowed the university to grow and provide opportunities, including new student housing, a palliative care program, and guaranteed admissions programs with local school districts.

Through a partnership with the students themselves, the university is building a student union, scheduled to open next year.

Haynes cited numerous achievements for the university, among them its freshman retention rate, now 80 percent; a 90 percent one-year continuation rate for military students; and an 88 percent retention rate in its program for former foster youths.

Still, Haynes did not let state lawmakers off easy. She pointed out the $18 million in permanent cuts that the university has endured since 2008. She said the university will be expected to pay for other costs previously covered by the state, such as debt service on capital projects.

“We will continue to deal with a budget woefully short of restoring lost funds and covering mandatory costs,” Haynes said.

She expressed frustration with CSU system-required enrollment limits that are a result of a reduction in state funding. If not for the restrictions, Cal State San Marcos would have an additional 2,000 students enrolled, “students and graduates who would help meet California’s work force needs,” Haynes said.

“As a high-demand campus in a growing region, I am angry … that we are forced to turn away qualified regional applicants because of decreased funding,” she said. The university has endured by being innovative not only in its curriculum but in how it is managed, Haynes said, and will continue to do so.

“We will … expand our partnerships and collaborate with industry, local governments and nonprofits,” Haynes said. “We will make maximum use of our location and our technology to expanding opportunity, grow the economy and elevate our region.”